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Renewing our pledge of integrity

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Dear Members of the University Community:

At the half-way point of my first year at the UW, there are still daily revelations of how great this University is and what that greatness is built upon. The more I look inside the campus, the more I see extraordinary, energized students and faculty applying their talents to expand and share human knowledge. The more I venture outside, the more I find alumni, donors, legislators, and private citizens who treasure the contributions the UW makes to their lives and to the good of the world.

As part of my discovery, I am increasingly impressed to see that the remarkable drive, inquisitiveness, and ambition of our faculty, staff, and students are tempered by a deep, pervasive respect for the rules and societal standards that define the right way to conduct our work. Such steadfast adherence to ethical principles is far from universal, nor can we take it for granted. Indeed, the news of the past year left us with far too many examples of the lasting harm done by malicious and careless individuals, whose acts were sometimes extended by the inaction of those who might have spoken up or intervened. For that matter, our protracted economic slump is rooted in a widespread, unchecked disregard for responsible financial practices. We have seen prominent public officials caught behaving unethically and recklessly. Persons entrusted with academic, administrative, and athletic responsibilities at institutions of higher education have been found to have actively betrayed that trust — or to have stood by passively allowing the destructive behavior to continue.

In contrast, it is clear to me that the University of Washington’s century and a half of success has been built on a strong foundation of integrity. When problems have been discovered, they have been dealt with promptly and appropriately, as one would hope. Overall, the UW has nurtured a culture of responsible conduct, which has sustained our perennial success in attracting scholars and administrators who share a visceral inclination to act honorably. This institutional legacy is certainly one of the reasons I am proud to be among you.

Having inherited such values, one of our duties is to periodically renew our commitment to maintain these high expectations of ourselves and of one another. To that end, I hope you will join me in resolving to make 2012 another year of hard work in the service of education, research, and public service, carried out with the highest standards of integrity. This is the one certain path to continued pride in our individual and collective accomplishments.

Best wishes for a New Year filled with discovery and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young's signature
Michael K. Young

Ana Mari Cauce named UW Provost

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Members of the University Community:

I am pleased to announce my decision to appoint Ana Mari Cauce, dean of our College of Arts & Sciences, to be the next provost of the University of Washington, effective January 2. As I described in my message a few weeks ago, Dean Cauce is an accomplished scholar, a brilliant teacher, and a seasoned and widely respected administrator at the UW. She has been here virtually her entire career, starting 25 years ago as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and over the course of her career, adding a joint appointment in the Department of American Ethnic Studies, as well as secondary appointments in gender, women & sexuality studies, Latin American studies, and the College of Education. From 1996–2000, she was director of clinical training in the Psychology department, and she also chaired the Dept. of American Ethnic Studies from 1996–1999. From 2000–2002, she served as director of the UW Honors Program and then chaired Psychology from 2002–2005. She served as executive vice provost from 2005–2008 before being appointed dean of Arts & Sciences.

Dean Cauce has been an inspirational teacher and mentor to undergraduate and graduate students alike. In 1999, she received a coveted UW Distinguished Teaching Award. In nominating her for the award, one student commented, “I have never met a faculty member who was more egalitarian and concerned about the welfare of her students.” Another wrote, “The sheer volume of students whose lives she has touched through small classes and personal mentoring is staggering.” Dean Cauce has continued to teach each summer in the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity Transition Program. From each position she has held, Dean Cauce also brings a well-deserved reputation for respecting and practicing shared governance and collaborative decision-making, traits that I value highly and which will be particularly important as we address the issues in front of us.

As you know, over the past several weeks, Dean Cauce has met with a number of groups at the University and held an open public forum so that you could meet her and hear her thoughts about taking on this new responsibility. Reports from those who met with her and attended the forum have been uniformly positive, reinforcing the search committee’s and my estimation that she is the right person for this job. I look forward to working with her in the coming years and leading this great University to even greater heights.

I also want to express on behalf of the entire University our collective thanks to Interim Provost Doug Wadden. He stepped into this role at a very challenging time and did an outstanding job this fall.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young's signature
Michael K. Young

Gov. Gregoire’s 2012 supplemental budget proposal

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Dear Members of the University Community:Today, the governor released her 2012 supplemental budget proposal to address an additional $2 billion shortfall for the current state biennial budget. As we expected, the proposed budget represents difficult choices for our state and real impacts to Washington’s citizens. The budget proposal includes an additional 17% budget reduction for the UW (approximately $38 million), but most importantly, it also includes tax proposals that if adopted would restore the $38 million cut. Other cuts in the budget have impacts on the University, most notably, $26.5 million in grants for hospitals that provide a significant amount of charity care, particularly the University of Washington health system.

As we are all aware, over the past three years, state funding for the University of Washington has been cut in half. Continuing to rely on steep tuition increases, job losses and reduced access to address state budget challenges is not sustainable. Our students and families and faculty and staff deserve better. A budget that relies only on further reductions without considering revenues would be harmful to our economy and the future of Washington state.

That is why I’m both pleased and grateful that Gov. Gregoire has chosen to take a balanced approach to addressing the present fiscal crisis. By prioritizing investments in higher education, the governor has clearly demonstrated her strong commitment to a better future for our citizens. I recognize that this budget proposal does not solve all of our challenges, and many of the cuts in this budget will be painful for our citizens. However, by proposing a pathway to prevent further deterioration in state funding for higher education, it represents a strong step on the road to economic recovery.

There is still a long, difficult road ahead. November 28th marks the start of the legislative special session, when Gov. Gregoire’s proposal will be taken up, along with other ideas for balancing the state budget. There will be no quick and easy fix to the problem. The University of Washington supports a fair and balanced approach to addressing the state’s budget crisis, and we are committed to working productively with the state legislature in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young's signature
Michael K. Young

Announcement of the Preferred Candidate for UW Provost

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Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students:

It is with great pleasure that I write to you today to identify Dr. Ana Mari Cauce as my preferred candidate for University Provost. As a long-time member of the UW faculty and as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Ana Mari is, of course, well known to many in our University community. She is a distinguished scholar and a seasoned leader. Her emergence through this exclusively internal search strongly confirms my initial belief that a dedicated and talented provost could be found within the existing faculty of this great institution.

As the penultimate step in this selection process, I will be working with Ana Mari to set up one or more opportunities for members of the University community to hear her discuss her plans as our chief academic officer, to ask questions, and to share with me any feedback you would like me to consider. This public process will take place prior to any formal confirmation of this appointment.

Many of you are aware that as the primary means of public participation in this selection process I had intended to rely on the broad composition of the Provost Search Committee—comprising faculty, staff, and students—and its solicitation of ideas from all of you. And the committee took this duty very seriously, conducting a University-wide survey and holding fifteen public meetings across our three campuses to hear from faculty, staff, and students on the qualities they hoped to see in our new provost. The committee spent hundreds of hours listening to the views of members of our community.

The extent to which provost finalists are made public, if at all, has varied over the history of the UW and continues to be handled in a variety of ways by the UW’s world-class peers. For this strictly internal search, I felt that the advantages of the open identification of one or more finalists were outweighed by the prospect of losing good candidates. I have, however, recently received a number of messages from faculty—many of them quite thoughtful—suggesting that the faculty at large at least be given a chance to review and comment on my preferred choice for this important position. Recognizing that they are offered with the University’s best interests in mind, I have taken these suggestions to heart and decided to create the additional public step I have described above. I trust it will add value to this process and help put the new Provost in the best position to undertake her duties.

Finally, I am deeply grateful to the Search Committee for its hard work and diligence in assessing the many qualified candidates that came to its attention and for enabling us to move ahead so swiftly to fill this leadership position during this challenging time. I also appreciate those of you who took the time to offer me your considered views and thoughts on the best approach to completing this process.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young

King County recognizes the UW’s 150th

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Members of the King County Council and County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg are joined by Michael Young, president of the University of Washington. Young accepted a proclamation from the county recognizing the UW's 150th anniversary.

Elected leaders in King County on Monday recognized the UW’s 150th anniversary and presented a special proclamation to UW President Michael Young. County Council Chairman Larry Gossett noted that he and six of his council colleagues are graduates of the University of Washington, which is recognized as one of the top research and training institutions in the country.

“In its 150 years of service, the University of Washington has played a pivotal role in the lives of people throughout the region and throughout the world,” Gossett said. “Through research and innovation, the UW has built an unmatched reputation that attracts the best and brightest staff and students from all over the world. There are so many remarkable contributions of this institution to our economy, our culture, our quality of life and to the lives of the UW alumni.”